Our First House

I don’t know many people who at the ages of 17 and 18 own their own house, but we do. I remember a year ago searching for the perfect house. I think we looked at a dozen houses a weekend. Then we found it, well so I thought, it was the perfect! It was a cute little two bedroom one bath, nice kitchen, the perfect detached garage for Raylyn to have his “man cave” in, the sweetest little back yard and deck. I thought we had found the perfect house for us to get started in but then it came time for the inspection and all that came crashing down. Everything was wrong in this house, I mean EVERYTHING! The guy who “flipped” this house just made things do and tried to cover up his sloppy not to code work, I got so upset. I thought we would never find a house after that. Then we pulled in the drive way of this tacky little red white and blue house trash under the steps and old paint cans on the front deck, inside the walls were these crazy ugly colors, the kitchen was old and very outdated and the back fence looked like it was falling apart, the only good thing about this house was the remodeled bathroom. But it was perfect, I could just picture me and Raylyn living here, I could see us having our first baby here, I absolutely loved it. I was so excited when the inspection came back good and I couldn’t wait for us to get started painting over those ugly colors and updating the kitchen.  Looking back now I am so glad that first house didn’t work out because we live in such a good neighborhood we have the BEST neighbors who take care of us, we live in a great school district for any future kids and we have a back yard and house big enough for us to get a puppy!

December 22

“I Raylyn Ayers take you Stacie Ledbetter to be my wedded wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, to care and protect, to comfort and encourage you, and to stay with you, for all of eternity.”

 I will never forget the sound of Raylyn’s voice while reading his vows or the smile on his face when I said I do or that feeling when we kissed for the first time as Mr. and Mrs. Ayers.  Yeah it wasn’t the wedding I had always dreamed about but it was PERFECT! There are no words that could ever describe the way I felt knowing Raylyn would never have to go back to that place ever again and I was going to get to spend the rest of my life with my prince charming. We aren’t perfect, yes we have our fights but there will NEVER come a day when I will stop loving Raylyn, he is my everything and I could never ask for more.

I hear wedding bells!

Okay so trusting Raylyn’s dad to come up with most of the plan was a big mistake since there turned out to be not much of a plan after all but oh well. The night we planned to leave we lucked out since Raylyn and his brother were left home alone. This made it really easy for Raylyn’s friend to drive by pick him up and make their way to meet me and Raylyn’s dad.  Then this is where things made a bad turn and I thought our plan wasn’t going to work and I would never see Raylyn again. Of course since Raylyn left his mom and step dad a note letting them know he was with his dad so they wouldn’t worry about him, they found out pretty soon where he was and they started blowing up mine, my moms, Raylyn’s dad’s and just about anyone else’s phones demanding that Raylyn come back home. Then Raylyn’s dad being an idiot instead of heading to N.C. goes back into town to meet a friend, why he felt like this was the best time to hang out with his friends like a little kid I don’t know but I was ready to just leave him behind and jump to plan B, take the notarized letter from his dad saying it was okay and go to Las Vegas and get married there without his dad.  Finally after about an hour we finally got on the interstate and went on our way. Then of course we got lost. How his dad managed to get lost I have no idea since we were following the signs but I guess in the time me and Raylyn dosed off he took a wrong turn or something.  Finally we got back going the right way and made it but it was two in the morning and we had to wait until eight for the courthouse to open so we parked the car and me and Raylyn went to sleep. When we woke up we went and found the courthouse which with our luck was under construction and a lot of the offices were closed but once again we lucked out since the ones we needed were open. Now we start filling out paper work and what not and that’s when it hit me, I AM ABOUT TO GET MARRIED!!!